Persistence

Persistence is a property that refers to the circumstances under which the changes caused by an action (such as collecting an item or killing an enemy) will "persist", or remain the same without resetting back to its default state.

As an example, killing an enemy results in a change; namely, that the enemy is no longer there. Running a distance away from this enemy's spawn point and then returning will revert this change, by causing the enemy to respawn. Therefore, this change is said to have local persistence (described in further detail below).

Categories of persistence

There are four different levels of persistence: save file, kingdom, scene and local. Each refers to a different requirement for the change to be reverted.

Save file persistence

Save file persistence refers to changes that are permanent with regard to the save file they are performed on, and cannot be reverted unless one starts the game over on a new file. Some examples of actions with save file persistence include:

Collecting a new Power Moon or Multi Moon for the first time
Collecting new Regional Coins for the first time
Planting a seed (small or large) in a pot
Opening a door with a red hat emblem

Kingdom persistence

Kingdom persistence refers to changes that remain until one travels to a different kingdom; entering a sub-world will not reset them. This is the least common type of persistence, and most of the actions in this category are obscure or lesser-known. Some examples of these actions include:

Breaking a cage, as seen in the Sand Kingdom and Lost Kingdom
Breaking rocks in the Cascade Kingdom using Chain Chomps or the T-Rex
Draining the moat in the Mushroom Kingdom
Lighting the lanterns in the Cap Kingdom using Cappy

Interestingly, if one travels to another kingdom via a Warp Painting, the kingdom-persisting changes from the previous kingdom will not be reset. The game retains these changes for the current kingdom and one previous kingdom, but only if a Warp Painting is used for travel. Traveling to another kingdom using the Odyssey will always reset these changes.